1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to fishing lures. In the past, most lures have been made either of metal or of a rubber-like or plastic material. Rubber-like and/or plastic materials are preferred by many fisherman because of the versatility they offer in providing many different types of lures and lures which more nearly resemble the natural prey of various fish. For example, the formation of lures from plastic materials not only permits the use of many different colors for various lures, but also permits the production of individual lures having different colors on different parts thereof. These effects can be achieved either by properly coloring the plastic material from which the lure is to be formed and/or by painting the exterior of the lure body, but would be more difficult if the lure body were comprised of metal. Furthermore, because molded plastic bodies having intricate configurations can be produced much more cheaply than like bodies of metal, it becomes practicable, with the use of plastics, to form lure bodies whose external configurations fairly accurately represent those of a small fish, worm, shrimp, or other natural prey. By way of comparison, metal lures are more typically produced in fairly simple shapes, such as that commonly known as a "spoon." Likewise, the use of various plastics permits different lure bodies to be formed with varying degrees of other qualities such as translucence, fluorescence, etc.
Although plastic lures have numerous advantages described above, they also have several drawbacks. One of these is that they are often too light in weight to provide the desired action as they are played in the water. Another is that, with the fish hook attached to one end or side of the lure body and the line attached to the other, the lure body may break or tear away in use due to the relative weakness of the material of which it is formed. This is particularly true of the relatively soft or flexible plastics or other rubber-like materials commonly used in the manufacture of shrimp or worm type lures. For these reasons, many fishermen continue to use metal lures for the sake of their greater weight and strength.
Still another disadvantage with any conventional lure, regardless of the material of which it is formed, is that its weight and configuration are fixed. Accordingly, a fisherman wishing to have the capability of varying the lure weight, appearance or action must carry a relatively large assortment of separate lures. Additionally, since each of these lures has one or more hooks, they tend to become entangled. Furthermore, as previously mentioned, the plastic lures may be relatively light and are therefore limited to relatively large sizes, since a relatively small lure formed entirely of plastic would be unduly light in weight. Conversely, with many of the preferred metal materials, the lure body may be limited to a relatively small range of sizes, since larger lures formed of such metals would be entirely too heavy.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various schemes have been devised for dealing with the above problems. However, in general, these have dealt with only one or another of the aforementioned disadvantages, and have failed to address others, and/or have introduced new problems of their own. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,708,806 to Siebert, 2,787,075 to Baum and 3,395,480 to McPherson disclose lures having upper and lower layers formed of different materials. Such lures attempt to combine various qualities of metal and plastic, such materials being used in the different layers respectively. However, the means by which these layers are joined to each other render these lures relatively expensive. Furthermore, the weight, appearance, and action of each such lure are still fixed or unchangeable.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,305,964 to Wieszeck discloses a plastic lure body having metal members embedded therein. While such a structure may have increased weight and/or strength, as compared with lures formed of plastic only, it is likewise relatively expensive to manufacture, and its features are fixed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,289,345 to Reininger et al discloses a sleeve which can be emplaced over a conventional spoon type lure to compensate for wearing of the finish on the exterior of the lure and/or to change its color. However, in this structure, the sleeve is a relatively thin-walled cover which simply parallels the general external configuration of an already existing lure body. Thus, such configuration, as well as the weight of the lure, are pre-determined and generally fixed by such existing lure.
French Pat. No. 1,509,103 to Masson, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,108,390 to Knight, 4,266,360 to Smith, 3,490,165 to Thomassin, and 3,971,152 to Husson, Jr. all disclosed multi-part lures in which an insert or other separable part is interfitted with a lure body. However, all of these arrangements still suffer from lack of versatility in that there is no provisions for altering the configuration of the lure body and/or its action as it is played in the water. Rather, the external configuration, whether rigid or flexible, is essentially fixed and unalterable.